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ADDRESS 



OF 



GABRIEL MOORE 



TO 



THE FREEMEN OF ALABAMA, 



IN REPIV TO 



RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 



ISVITINO 



HIM TO RESIGN HI3 SEAT AS ONE OF TUB IBENATOKS IN THE CONGRESS 

OF THE UNITED STATES. 



^/ ^'/ASrtl^' 



Washington.' 

PRINTED BY DUFF GREiSN, 
IS35. 

r 



, \ 



TO THE FREEMEN OF ALABAMA. 



• 



Fellow Citizens: 

The late General Assembly of the State having thought proper to 
pass resolutions, impugning my political course as a member of the 
United States Senate; and having also attempted, in a most extraor- 
dinary manner, to abridge my constitutional term of service, by re- 
quiring an immediate resignation of the office which I now hold; I 
claim the humble privilege of appearing before the tribunal of public 
opinion, to vindicate myself from the charges with which I have been 
assailed, and to in^ oke the public judgment on the course which, with 
due deliberation, 1 have prescribed to myself. 

I wish it to be distinctly borne in mind, that it is not my design to 
arraign the General Assembly, or any of its members, but to defend 
myself. 

The people are the legitimate source of all power, and to them 
every public servant is responsible for the discharge of his trust. In 
appealing to them, my purpose is not to call forth their censure on 
others, but to acquit myself before the only tribunal which has juris- 
diction over the question. 

Whatever opinion I may entertain of the acts of the General Assem- 
bly, or the operation of those acts against my own rights, towards the 
General Assembly itself, in its high representative character, and in the 
discharge of its constitutional duties, I can entertain no other feelings 
than those of the most profound respect. If, therefore, my response 
to the resolutions is not through the President of the Senate and the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, it is because those bodies, 
in their collective capacities, are no longer in being, but have returned 
to, and constitute a portion of the people, before whom I submit the 
vindication of my conduct. 

It is a principle coeval with the first institutions of justice, that when 
an individual is charged with any offence, wheiher political or civil, 
the offence so charged shall be particularized — and specifically set forth, 
so that the accused cannot mistake the particular act or acts which he 
has to defend. So completely is this principle interwoven into the 
very conceptions of justice which prevail in all civilized communities, 
that even a debt not specifically set forth in all its distinct liabilities 
cannot be recovered in a court of justice. Had the General Assembly 
adhered to this obvious rule of law, as well as of justice, and specifi- 



callj^^t forth those acts on my part which rendered me obnoxious to 
the^Bnsure, an issue might easily be joined on those acts, and the 
people could speedily determine between us. 

Strange, however, as it may appear, though I have been tried and 
found guilty by the General Assembly, without a hearing, or even a 
notice served upon me; and although condemnation has been an- 
nounced, and an extraordinary and an unheard of sentence has been 
passed against me, and though a punishment (as I shall show beyond 
the limits of the law) has been assigned me, my accusers have not to 
this day made known to me a single act upon which iheir judgment 
was founded. If I had, during the discharge of my public duties, 
given a single vote where motives of private interest prevailed over 
the public good; if through the promptings of ambition or avarice I 
had, in a single instance, attempted to propitiate power or patronage 
at the expense of the interest or the liberties of my constituents, then 
might these acts with the most appaling particularity have been 
brought up in judgment against m.e; and if found guilty, I could not 
have complained of the severest punishment. I thanlc my God, how- 
ever, my conscience tells me I have been guilty of no such betrayal 
of public confidence. That I may often have erred in judgment in 
the discharge of public duty, I am free to admit; but that I have from 
selfish motives corruptly bartered away the rights of the people, I not 
only deny, but think I can prove by my accusers themselves, who, in 
their zeal to condemn and punish me, have brought no such charge against 
me. It was in vain that those few in the Legislature who strove to 
avert the prescriptive violence which was aimed at an absent and per- 
secuted man asked, again and again, what act of mine rendered me the 
object of such unbounded censure. No act was specified; no journals 
produced; no proof was ever thought necessary where no charge was 
preferred. 

I submit it to the candor of my fellow citizens, whether the failure 
of the General Assembly to specify my offences does not argu€ both 
a want of justice to me, and a want of confidence in the truth of their 
own charges; and whether predetermined punishment docs not appear 
10 be the end and aim of this whole proceeding. 

But, fellow citizens, as I propose the freest and fullest investigation 
of my public conduct; as I have an abiding consciousness, that, how- 
ever I may have been frequentl}' subjected to the common infirmity 
of erring in judgment, not a single feeling of private interest has ever 
controlled my course, I will, in the absence of all direct and positive 
charges in the resolutions, attempt to reply to objections urged in the 



most vague manner, and couched in the most general terms. I trust 
tliat this review, though more tedious than would Iiave been necessary 
to meet direct charges, will not deter any citizen who fairly estimates 
the value of reputation to a public servant, from doing me the justice 
of giving it an attentive perusal. 

It will scarcely be contended by the General Assembly that any 
other ihan public considerations should control their public delibera- 
tions, and that any attempt to inflict a wound on the private feelings, or 
throw imputations on the private character of an individual, is not only 
beneath the dignity of a Legislative Assembly, but is a direct invasion 
of the private rights of a free citizen. 

While I admit to the fullest extent the right, not only of the Legis- 
lature but of every individual in the community, however humble, to 
canvass freely and without reserve the acts and conduct of public men 
in the discharge of public duties, I deny the right of memb .-. ?, under 
the garb of official duty, to attack the motives, and to arraign the in- 
tentions of a public servant, acting in a different character, in such a 
way as to inflict a wound on his private reputation. My complaint is 
not that the Legislature has too freely canvassed my public acts, but 
that while they have failed to do this, they have been rr.ost lavish in 
attributing to me motives utterly irreconcileable with my reputation as 
a man. If I had been arraigned before the General Assembly upon 
an impeachment for the grossest corruptions, more strong and apt 
phrases of moral guilt could not have been applied to me. I am ac- 
cused of "pursuing a course of conduct in palpable violation of the 
known wishes, and in disregard of the known sentiments of a large 
majority of my constituents." 1 am admonished "it is ni)- duty in 
justice to the constituency I have misrepresented, to the remnant of 
devotion to republican principles I yet profess, to transmit forthwith 
my resignation to the Governor, that an individual more acceptable to 
the people of this State, and better calculated consciejitiousli/ and pro- 
perly to represent their wishes, may be elected by their representa- 
tives." In addition to all this, which I can characterize as nothin''' 
else than a tirade of personal abuse, allusion is made to my conduct 
both " in and out of Congress, &c. " Now I submit it to the candor 
of the people of Alabama, not whether I deserve this censure, but 
whether the Legislature of Alabama has not been guilty of a most 
flagrant assault upon privaleright, in thusheaping abuse on an individual 
because he has chanced to differ with them, or even the President, upon 
certain points of public policy. 



6 

Has the General Assembly consulted its own dignity, or what is of 
still more consequence, the dignity of those they represent, (for they 
seem to have forgotten that they, too, are public servants,) in supplying 
the total absence of facts in their resolutions by the most bitter invec- 
tives? If I had given an)- vote which showed so irreconcileable a dif- 
ference between my opinions and those of the people of Alabama, as 
to have convinced the Legislature lliat I could no longer represent them^ 
could not this fact have been cited, and the vote adduced, in a series of 
resolutions, without charging me with violating the known ivishes and 
sentiments of my constituents — without an inuendo that "I profess 
a remnant of republican principles" which I do not possess; and with- 
out advising me to give way to the election of an individual " better 
calculated conscientiously and properly to represent their wishes;" 
which can be understood in no other sense than that I have not "con- 
scientiously and properly representetl their wishes." I cannot suppose 
that the members of the General Assembly are so ignorant of the cour- 
tesies of political warfare as not to know, that though the utmost dif- 
ference in political opinion may be most freely avowed and discussed, 
yet an imputation upon the motives of a political opponent is regarded as a 
direct and personal insult, and such an insult as, if offered to many wha 
voted for these resolutions, would, perhaps, have been promptly resented. 
And can such gentlemen believe that their official station invests them 
with a power to ofler an offence to my feelings which their own could not 
brook? I urge this, not as an argument that my personal feelings have 
been violated in a manner that would give me claims to personal satis- 
faction, but for the higher purpose of showing that the Legislature, 
though professing in these resolutions to have been discharging public 
trusts, were, in truth, indulging private feelings in at least a most vin- 
dictive and undignified manner. Many, in following the lead of party, 
might have been unconscious of this tendency in the resolutions; but I 
have old, bitter, and deep grudging enemies, who were glad to give 
boih point and venom to the darts which have been levelled against 
mo, and who no doubt rejoiced that in so doing they stood behind the 
screen of official responsibility. These men, doubtless, will know who 
I mean; if tliey will call on me I slndl liave the candor to let them 
know. 

It is not the first time these extraordinary resolutions have been at- 
tril)uted to another than their putative father. 1 should not be sur- 
prised if they were conceived in Hunlsville, although they may never 
have seen the light until they reached Tuscaloosa. Be this as it may, 
I submit it to the candor of a liberal public to say whether, if a Legis- 



lature of my most bitter and unrelenting personal enennies had been 
collected together, they could, in the virulence of their private feel- 
ings, have devised a set of resolutions more vague and indefinite in 
facts — more harsh or vindictive in epithets. 

Perhaps this is all a heretic, or one " committed in favor of heretical 
doctrines" had a right to expect. Heretics have in all ages shared the 
hardest fate, and many have burnt at the stake for offences not belter 
defined or proven than those which I am called to expiate. The law 
which governs in suck cases carries with it one absolute certainty — the 
certainty of punishment; and he who is so unfortunate as to meet with 
so little charity as to be accused of heresy ;, whether political or re- 
ligious, need expect but little clemency, or even justice, in the mea- 
sure of his ptmishment. 

Having thus adverted to the temper of these resolutions, I feel it a 
duty which I owe to myself, in the most solemn manner to den}"^ that 
I have misrepresented the known wishes of my constituents. I have 
been accused of an alliance and co-operation with that combination of 
parties which have united themselves to oppose and embarrass the pre- 
f^ent national administration. 

I deny an alliance with any man, or set of men, for any such pur- 
pose; and I confidently appeal to my votes in the Senate as a conclusive 
refutation of this charge. By these I am willing to be judged, and by 
them it will be found that I have in a great many cases sustained the 
Administration, In fact, I have-always done so, when I could consist- 
ently with what I believed to be the rights and interests of the people 
I represented. I will not deny that I have frequently differed with the 
Administration; and in all such cases I have felt it my duty to indicate 
that difference by my votes. If it is now or ever has been the wish of 
the people of Alabama that I should vary or change my vote according 
to the wishes of the President, or any other individual, I have totally 
misconceived the character of those I represent. I do not, nor will 
I believe it; and, come from what source it may, I must, until I am 
convinced to the contrary, pronounce it a foul slander upon the spirited 
freemen of Alabama. If I have understood my position, I have been 
the representative of the people of Alabama, and not of the President. 
If the people or the Legislature have expected that I should, on all 
questions, think and act with the President, it would have been but 
just that I should have been apprised of so unreasonable an expectation. 
No independent mind ever did or ever can think alike on every sub- 
ject with any Administration; and if I had known that such was expected 
of me, I should long since have resigned. If a complete conformity of 



8 

public action and opinion with the views of the Executive be establish- 
ed as the standard of political faith, I know not an individual representa- 
tive from the State, even in the ranks of \h^ faithful, who can abide 
the test. There is none who have not departed from true faith; nOy 
not one. Every representative from the State, in both Houses, voted 
against the Force Bill, although that measure stands on the statute 
book as, perhaps of all others, the most prominent of General Jackson's 
Administration, and one which he thought proper most strongly to re- 
commend. Why was it that the cry of opposition was not then raised 
against others as well as myself? Why did not this attempt to avert the 
sword and bayonent from the breasts of our brethren of South Carolina 
involve us all in the charge of unfaithfulness to the Administration, and 
commit us all to the heretical doctrine of nullification? If the State of 
South Carolina was at that time in a position of rebellious treason 
against the Government and its constitutional laws, then indeed did the 
crisis justify an employment of physical force against her as a common 
enemy of the Union. 

If, on the contrary, she interposed her high sovereign authority not 
against the law, but an usurpation of the Government, and was, in fact, 
standing up in defence of the constitution, as all those must have 
believed who voted against the employment of force, then with 
uhat propriety can her doctrines be pronounced " heretical," without 
branding with heresy all those who took this favorable view of her 
conduct ? I am willing to vote for the repeal of the force bill tomor-^ 
row. Will any representative from the State avow that he is not ? 
although it is well known the President would oppose the repeal with 
all his power. Thus, fellow citizens, it will be seen that I have, in 
the discharge of my official duties, committed myself upon this, the 
only question before Congress which has involved the doctrine of 
nullification, precisely to the extent of my colleagues, and not a jot or 
tittle farther. It is true, J did not come Iwme and acknowledge that I 
had done wrong in giving this vote, by palliati7ig, excusing, or apo- 
logizing for it; but I have rested securely in the conviction, that of 
all the acts of my public life, that is one of the last which I ever expect 
to regret. If there be in fact a pardoning power which excuses one 
man for opposing the measures of the Administration, while it punishes 
another fur the same otfence, then ought the General Assembly to 
have made it known. Perhaps, as a measure of Executive clemency', 
a dispensation is sometimes granted to an individual to give an opposi- 
tion vote oil one subject, on condition that he si)all, on all others, 
sycopliant-like, faithfully subserve the purposes of those in power; or, 



perhaps, in deference to the independent exercise of individual 
opinion, it may have been solemnly adjudged that a representative of 
the people has the unquestioned right, once in five years' public ser- 
vice, to differ from the Executive with impunity. If this be not the 
rule, I would like to know what rule does govern, and how far and 
how often a public servant may be permitted to think and act without 
the permission of the Executive. The General Assembly itself, in 
the resolutions adopted, does not avow an unqualified approbation of 
all the measures of the Administration. On the contrary, they believe 
<' its prominent measures and course of policy to be dictated by wis- 
dom and patriotism." 

Now, if a support of ih^ prominent measures be made the test, I 
aver that, with the exception of the force bill above alluded to, I have 
given the Administration my warm and cordial support. If opposi- 
tion to the tariff be one of those prominent measures, I am willing to 
measure my opposition to that system with any friend of the Presi- 
dent, or even with the President himself. In opposing the system of 
internal improvements (in arresting which the friends of the President 
claim for him much credit) I have gone as far as he who has gone far- 
thest. I have not, during my senatorial term, given a single vote 
recognizing the right of the Government to carry on this system. In 
this prominent measure of the Administration, I claim to have gone 
farther than many who claim to be the President's warmest and most 
exclusive friends. In opposition to the United States Bank I have 
given the President my warmest support. I appeal, fearlessly, to 
every vote I have ever given on the subject, as evidence of my uo- 
compromising opposition to that institution. If the speedy payment 
of the public debt be considered as one of the prominent measures of 
the Administration, I call on my most bitter enemies to point to an 
individual who has more uniformly opposed a system of profligate and 
wasteful expenditure of public money. 

I now submit it to my fellow citizens — What prominent measure of 
the Administration have I opposed? Has not the General Assembly 
most wisely avoided specifications, in their attempt to involve me in 
<' opposition to iha pro??iineni measures to the Administration." 

But, fellow citizens, as the General Assembly has been pleased to 
advert to the '' latter part of my official course, as containing the gross- 
est aberrations from my public duty, perhaps I may abridge ihis re- 
view of my senatorial service by looking here for those enormities 
which were so revolting to the political sentiment of the State as to 
require an immediate resignation of my office. And here I must do 



10 

the General Assembly the justice to acknowledge, that this allusion to 
the " latter part of my political career" is some clue, and the only one 
by which I am to hunt out the particular offence at which their repro- 
bation is pointed. 

In making this concession, I am not certain the words were not in- 
serted for the covert purpose of justifying them in doing what preceding 
Legislatures had thought proper not to do, and of leading off the public 
mind from the true cause of their indignation towards me. So far as I 
am entitled to an opinion, I would say that during '< the latter part of 
my political career," and particularly during the last session, I came 
less in collision with the measures or wishes of the Administration than 
at any previous session. It will be recollected that the most prominent, 
if not the only point on which the Administration was assailed during 
the last session, was upon the propriety of the removal of the public 
deposites from the Bank of the United States, which had been effected 
some weeks before the meeting of Congress. Although upon this 
question I believed the removal had been made without sufficient 
cause, such was my respect for the opinions of those I represented, and 
so fully was I convinced that the sentiments of a majority of the State 
justified the act, that upon the final vote I rose in my place, and after 
stating the convictions of my own judgment, I declared my intention 
of voting against the restoration of the deposites, on the express ground, 
that in so doing I believed I was representing the wishes of a majority 
of the people of Alabama, After this earnest endeavor on my part 
fairly to represent the feelings of my constituents, even at the sacrifice 
of my own judgment, upon the only subject on which a knowledge of 
their opinions reached me during the session, I ask with what pro- 
priety or justice the General Assembly could, at their next session, 
charge me with " pursuing a course of conduct in palpable violation of 
the known wishes, and disregard of the known sentiments of a large 
majority of my constituents." So far from this being the fact, the 
vote I gave was in pursuance of the supposed wishes, and in regard to 
the presumed sentiments of a majority of my constituents; and it was 
for this reason, and for this only, that I gave the vote in opposition to 
my own private convictions. I go farther, and declare, that in all 
cases where the wishes of my constituents have been known to me, I 
have always considered, and do still consider it my duty to be governed 
thereby, unless in so doing I shall violate my oath to support the con- 
stitution. In all cases where the wishes of my constituents are not 
known to me, I feel myself at liberty to pursue the dictates of my own 
judgment. 



11 

Acting under this obvious conviction of public duty, I voted against 
a resolution in the following words, viz. : " That the President, in the 
late executive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, has as- 
sumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the consti- 
tution and laws, but in derogation of both." Although this resolution 
embodied my own convictions, that the President had no right to 
remove the public revenue from the place in which it was deposited 
by law, yet a belief that a majority of those I represented, sustained 
these acts of the President, induced me so far to forego my own judg- 
ment, as to cause me to vote against the above resolution. I stated 
at the time, distinctly, that though my own opinions corresponded 
with the resolution, I could not in my representative character vote 
for the resolution, without affirming what I was convinced would be 
in opposition to the opinions of the people I represented. 

Of my vote on both of the above mentioned resolutions the General 
Assembly, in their eagerness to reprehend my conduct, must have 
been entirely ignorant, or they never could have ventured the charge 
that I was disposed to misrepresent the known wishes of my constitu- 
ents. I am further induced to believe the random and haphazard charges 
contained in the resolutions of the General Assembly were the result 
of an indiscriminate prejudice raised against me, by a knot of my bitterest 
enemies, rather than the convictions arising from a full knowledge of my 
actual votes, from the fact; that since I have been instructed to resign my 
seat, I have been also instructed " to use my most untiring efforts to have 
the resolution of the Senate, condemning this course of the President, 
expunged from the journals" of that body. Now, as the great object 
of the leaders in this matter in the General Assembly appears to have 
been to visit me with their severest reprehension, I cannot doubt that 
the above instructions were brought forward and voted for,under a belief 
that I had voted last session, in favor of this obnoxious resolution of 
censure against the President, and that the instructions would add to 
my embarrassment. In this I am glad to undeceive them, as I voted 
against this particular resolution, which is so obnoxious as to be thought 
unworthy to remain on the journals of the Senate, I take great plea- 
sure in saying, that I am ready at all times to reaffirm that vote. Ac- 
knowledging fully the right of the Legislature to instruct me as to any 
vote I may give, and believing myself bound to obey such instructions 
so long as they may emanate from, and are in accordance with the will 
of the people, and not in violation of the constitution, I shall cheer- 
fully give my vote for another resolution, which shall have the effect 
2 



12 

of repealing, annulling, and reversing the vote of censure against the 
President in relation to the deposites. Having done this, I shall have 
substantially complied, in good faith, with the instructions of the Ge- 
neral Assembly. 

I shall have used my best efforts to expunge the resolution from the 
journals when I shall endeavor to destroy its effect on the journals. 
Taking the instructions in this sense, I feel no hesitation in obeying 
them. If, however, they were intended to go further, and are to be 
understood literally, as conveying instructions to me to destroy, alter, 
falsify, or suppress the record of any part of our proceedings, then I 
consider myself bound by no such instructions. It would be no less 
than an order from the General Assembly to violate that provision in 
the constitution which requires "that each House shall keep a journal 
of its ])roceedings.-" What is a journal but a complete record of all the 
acts and doings of the body.? Can this record be altered, falsified, or 
suppressed, without violating the above provision of the constitution? 
If we can expunge or erase a part of the journal, can we not suppress 
or destroy the whole, and thus prostrate the responsibility of the Senate 
to the people? We can repeal any act or resolution which stands on 
the journals, but we cannot, by erasure or expunging, so far falsify 
the journals as to make them say no such actor resolution ever existed. 
No such attempt has ever been made since the commencement of the 
Government; and whenever it shall be consummated, the al)ove pro- 
vision of the constitution will not only have been flagrantly violated, 
but the sacred responsibility of the representative to his constituents 
will be totally destroyed, by destroying the authenticity of the only re- 
cord of his proceedings. I will not assume that such was the object of 
the General Assembly; on the contrary, I shall take it for granted that 
their object was to destroy the effect of the vote of censure against the 
President, by another resolution reprehending that vote; and this ob- 
ject I shall use my best exertions to carry into effect. To go further, 
would not only be a violation of the oath I have taken to defend the 
constitution, but would, iu my estimation, be exceeding the just \Vishes 
and expectations of the people. In the course I have prescribed to 
myself, I feel satisfied that I shall sustain their wishes more fully, 
than by lending myself to an undignified and vindictive proceeding, 
which shall not only violate the constitution but degrade the Senate. 

Having thus fully and frankly stated the views which shall govern 
ine in relation to the instructions above alluded to, I should be glad to 
know how the General Assembly could properly instruct me on the 
above subject, after first instructing me to resign my seat. Could any- 



13 

thing be more paradoxical than to send on to me instructions forthwith 
to resign my seat, and then, before the answer could possibly be re- 
ceived, to transmit instructions that I should pursue a particular course 
on a particular question? Which set of resolutions am I to obey? If 
I had obeyed the first, I could not by possibility obey the last. To do 
both would be impossible. Am I to understand that where the legisla- 
tive will is expressed in two different ways, the last governs and repeals 
the first? If so, the resolutions instructing me to resign have been re- 
scinded by the subsequent resolutions, and I should now be disobeying 
the will of the Legislature were I to resign. Perhaps subsequent re- 
flection has convinced the General Assembly that they had no consti- 
tutional right to instruct me to resign; and hence, in passing the second 
resolutions, they treated the first as unconstitutional, inoperative, null, 
and void. If this motive did really govern, an avowal of it would not 
only have been proper, but would have exhibited a magnanimity well 
worthy of the General Assembly. 

I think it may be seriously questioned, not only from the contradic- 
tory character of the second set of instructions, but from intrinsic evi- 
dence furnished by the first, whether the General Assembly ever be- 
lieved it had a constitutional right to instruct me authoritatively to re- 
sign, and whether the whole proceeding was not gotten up for the sole 
purpose of inflicting a wound on my private feelings. On their face 
they purport to be joint resolutions of the General Assembly of the 
State of Alabama. It will be recollected that, by the constitution of 
Alabama, all joint resolutions are to be read three several days in each 
house, and when passed are to be signed by the Governor, and to have 
the force of a law. So far, then, as legislative form is concerned, they 
are as authoritative as any act of the land. They purport to be, not 
only the official opinions of the General Assembly, but a legislative 
act, sanctioned by the three departments of the Government, and, like 
all other laws, subject to be enforced by the Executive. Strange, how- 
ever, as it may appear, these resolutions, though forwarded to me by 
the Executive, are incomplete, for the want of his signature and ap* 
proval. I might, upon the reception of them, had I have been disposed 
to turn this question upon a quibble rather than to have it tried upon its 
merits, have transmitted them back to the Executive as a mere legis- 
lative nothing. But with all their imperfections, the resolutions con- 
tained principles too grave to have met with this reception. Why was 
it that the Governor refused his signature to the above resolutions? 
The political opinions expressed in them did not differ from his own. 
I can conceive no other reason than that he believed he had no power 



14 

to give, by his signature and approval, authority to demands on me, 
which the Legislature had no right to make. By pursuing this subject 
a little farther, we shall see how far the good sense of the Governor, 
in refusing his signature, relieved him from the most ridiculous dilem- 
ma, in which the joint resolutions would have placed him. Let it be 
borne in mind, that when signed by him, they would have had the force 
of law, and by his oath he would have been bound to see them executed 
and obeyed. They purport to be "joint resolutions requesting the 
Hon. Gabriel Moore to resign his seat in the Senate of the United 
States." It might well have occurred to the Governor, if he signed 
these resolutions, how he would have enforced my resignation. Cer- 
tainly by no power known to the constitution and laws. He might 
well have questioned whether, as the resolutions contained nothing but 
the request of the General Assembly, I would yield to that request, 
although backed by all the solemnity and authority of joint resolutions 
signed by the Governor. He might also have been struck with the 
singular spectacle of a law requesting an individual to do a particular 
act, at the same time that he is denounced and abused in the most vio- 
lent manner. Superiors, acting in the sphere of their rightful powers, 
command; enemies denounce; and friends only have the right to re- 
quest. In which of these positions the resolutions place the General 
Assembly, I submit to the judgment of the people. Certain it is, in 
the estimation of those who voted for the resolutions, there is no con- 
stitutional right in the Legislature to instruct me authoritatively to re- 
sign; unless, indeed, through n tender and delicate regard to my feel- 
ings, the language of request was substituted for that of command. 
Considering, therefore, these resolutions of the General Assembly like 
all other requests, as addressed to my discretion, I cannot comply with 
the request without admitting that the charges of official misconduct 
upon which it was founded, are both just and true. 

But, fellow citizens, as I am a sincere advocate of the great republi- 
can doctrine of instruction, I feel myself called upon to rescue this 
doctrine from any imputation that the Legislature can instruct a Senator 
to resign his seat, and that such instructions are obligatory. It was 
reserved for the Legislature of Alabama to assume, for the first time, 
this new and most extraordinary position. By the constitution, a 
Senator is elected for six years. Can any one contend that this tenure 
of service, fixed by the constitution, can be altered at the mere plea- 
sure, and be made subject to the mere will of the Legislature? If this 
was the intention of that instrument, why was it not declared that 
Senators shall hold their office during the will of the Legislature? 



15 

Suppose that an election of a Senator takes place at one session of 
the Legislature, and an individual is elected to that office on account 
of certain political opinions in coincidence wiiji a majority of its mem- 
bers. At the next election by the people, a Legislature of entirely a 
different political complexion is elected; can the Legislature, so elected 
instruct the Senator to resign because of his opinions? Certainly not. 
They can instruct him to vote on a particular measure in a particular 
way, and to advocate a particular line of policy. And if these in- 
structions are sustained by the will of the people, the Senator should 
either obey the instructions or resign his seat. To instruct him to 
resign, is an admission that they have no right, by instructions, to 
control his senatorial course into an acquiescence with the will of the 
people. The effect of this doctrine would be to put down the efficacy 
of instructions, so far as they are intended to operate on the measures of 
the Government, and to make them potent only in their operation upon 
the senatorial term of service. Tlie people at every annual election 
of their representatives would, in fact, be electing Senators to Con- 
gress; and instead of making their selections to suit the ordinary pur- 
poses of legislation, they would be compelled to vote with an eye 
strictly directed to the efiect of their vote, on the Senate of the United 
States. Now, if the last General Assembly had thought proper to 
instruct my vote on any particular question, I should most cheerfully 
have obeyed such instruction?!, unless such obedience had involved a 
violation of the higher will of the people, or of the constitution. Their 
failure to do this, and their instructions to me to resign my seat, evinced 
an opposition to, and a want of confidence in the legitimate doctrine 
of instruction. In truth, I am warranted, from the temper and spirit 
of the resolutions, in believing that it was not the wish of the General 
Assembly to instruct me into an observance of the popular will, but 
that their sole object was to vacate my seat. I am accused in the reso- 
lutions of having, during the whole term of my service, violated the 
public will; and yet, with several successive Legislatures holding the 
doctrine of the right of instruction, no attempt was ever before made 
to instruct me as to what had been a departure from, or what in future 
would be an observance of that will. Can this be accounted for upon 
any other principle than that some of the members who voted for these 
resolutions, professing so great a veneration for the popular will, were 
either totally indifierent with regard to it, or were in fact afraid that I 
would, by obeying instructions, leave no further ground for an attempt 
to vacate my seat, which they sought with much more eagerness than 
they did my compliance with instructions? 



16 

Fellow citizens; Having thus attempted to vindicate my official con- 
duct from the imputations thrown on it by the resolutions of the 
General Assembly; and having explicitly avowed the course I intended 
to pursue, in relation to the instructions, or rather <' request"' that I 
should resign my seat, I feel it due to myself, to tear off the veil from 
my opponents, and to make manifest the real motives by which they 
have been governed. My original and besetting sin with these in- 
dividuals, and one which even my political destruction can never 
expiate, was my vote for the rejection of Martin Van Buren. This 
is the head and front of my offending; and for this I have been pursued 
by the partisans of that individual with a vengeance as keen as death, 
and as insatiate as the grave. Shortly after that vote was given, it will 
be recollected what efforts were made to rouse the public indignation 
against me. Meetings were held, in which I was denounced beyond 
measure and mercy; and whilst it was attempted to prostrate me, it 
was also thought a favorable opportunity to arouse the public sympathy 
into a feeling of regard and affection for that individual. Attempts 
•were then made to compel me by the force of public opinion to resign 
my seat. At the ensuing Legislature, resolutions instructing me to 
resign were expected to have passed almost by acclamation. Parti- 
tisaa presses then, as now, resorted to every means in their power to 
inflame the public mind, and to excite a spirit of persecution against 
me, in orler to produce that result; and yet all these efforts proved 
abortive. The appeal thus made to the people failed of its object; and 
at the meeting of the General Assembly my friends exultingly chal- 
Ic^nged the partisans of Mr. Van Buren to bring forward their reso- 
lutions of censure. They were then too prudent to meet this bold 
defiance. These are the men, fellow citizens, who, at that time dis- 
appointed in tlieir threatened attempt to prostrate me, and to bind the 
State of Alabama firmly to the car of the magician of Kinderhook, 
have, by combining their strength, by concealing the real cause of 
their hostility under charges of opposition to the Administration, and 
taking advantage of General Jackson's popularity, succeeded in pass- 
ing resolutions instructing me to resign. 

But ill effecting this object mark the change in their tactics. In the 
former case the}' made their appeal to the people — they agitated the 
question ]jubllcly, and with all the injustice with which I was then 
treated, thoy had the merit, and the sole merit, of declaring their ob- 
ject openly. 

In the latter case their plans, though deeply laid, were well conceal- 
ed; not a whisper was heard on the subject before the general election 



17 

sn August; none but the initiated were trusted with the secret; no 
appeals were made to the people, because before the people they had 
been once frustrated. It was not until in November last, when I was 
about leaving home, and after an individual who possesses quite as much 
influence in that quarter as his disinterestedness and intrinsic merit 
give him a just claim to, who has for the last four years been known 
here as the friend of Mr, Van Burcn, and who has been cautiously 
feeling the pulse of the people in Alabama, and who has occasionally 
ventured to express to some of them his preference for that individual, 
and his great fears that there should be a division in the republican 
ranks — I say, it was not until that individual had enjoyed the oppor- 
tunity of advising with some of the citizens of the county, if not im- 
mediately after he had passed through it, that a meeting was got up at 
Bolivar, mainly, I have no doubt, by the exertions of a warm adherent 
of his, instructing the delegation from the county, to vote for the reso- 
lutions demanding the resignation of my seat. The next public meet- 
ing was in the county of Blount, in which another individual, who, 
though inferior in every point of view, yet no less devoted to the 
same personage, appeared as the prime mover and grand master of 
ceremonies. A meeting was also procured in Limestone county, by a 
man and his friends, who is my personal, political, and, I may say, my 
hereditary enemy, and closely connected by affinity to the person who 
was most active at the meeting in Jackson — whose animosity was whet- 
ted by the fierce contests in which it was my fortune in former times 
to take part against a powerful and heartless moneyed aristocracy, who, 
by the aid of the old Huntsville bank, sucked, like so many vampires, 
the substance and very hearts' blood of the honest hard working men 
of North Alabama. The feelings engendered by that hard contest, be- 
tween wealth on one side and honest industry on the other, have never 
been forgotten. They will, I have no doubt, even in the second and 
third generation, follow me to the grave. They have stood ready, and 
always will stand ready, to join any cause which threatens my de- 
struction. These feelings have come to the aid of P'an L'tirenis7?i in 
this contest. Heightened by the recollection of a political defeat at mv 
hands; they exist in the breast of the prime mover of this unparalleled 
persecution which has been gotten up against me. In the breast of 
others, and particularly of a representative of Limestone, they have 
been powerful auxiliaries in sacrificing me on the altar of f''a?i 
Burenism. 

I have no doubt, many who stood by me in those heated contests, 
and fought with me shoulder to shoulder against bank monopoly, aris- 
tocracy, and wealth, have, by the artful stratagems of my enemies, been 



^18 

their " known sentiments" on this great question; who will try to 
give effect to their will, or who will covertly attempt to defeat it by 
caucuses and national conventions. Already has this attempt to pledge 
the vote of the slate to the will of a convention been made in the last 
General Assembly, by the very men who were foremost in denounc- 
ing me for a disregard of the will of the people. I have no doabt, fel- 
low citizens, that every effort will be made to cheat the people of 
Alabama out of their honest preferences for Judge White : men vvill 
affect the greatest anxiety for his cause, and yet doubt of his chances of 
success; they will cry "don't divide the party — prevent an election 
by the House of Representatives;" and when all these cuckoo notes 
have failed, they will come forward and claim to be the first, staunchest, 
and most consistent friends of the people's choice. Mark what I now 
say! Those who have been most active in creating an excitement against 
me, will be the most reluctant to renounce their New York idol, which 
they have secretly worshipped, and enlist under ihe banner of Hdoh 
L. White. 

With an unabated confidence in the intelligence of the people, and 
the ultimate justice of their awards to public servants, 

I am, fellow citizens. 

Your obedient servant, 

GABRIEL MOORE. 



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